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Friday, November 9, 2012

"All In," Indeed: Updates on Petraeus Affair Affair

UPDATE #3 NYT does separate story on Paula Broadwell here. Former model for a machine gun manufacturer? Got to dig up photos of that.

UPDATE #2 Tbe letter everyone is talking about--to NYT ethics columnist Chuck Klosterman (it's the second one) last summer that sounds, to some, like it might have come from Paula Broadwell's husband. I think not--unless hubby fudged some of descriptions--but pretty damn interesting. Klosterman's reply:"I halfway suspect you’re writing this letter because you want specific
people to read this column and deduce who is involved and what’s really
going on behind closed doors (without actually addressing the conflict
in person). That’s not ethical, either."

UPDATE: NYT in new story states flatly that Paula Broadwell was indeed "the other woman." And runs picture of her with Petraeus at top of home page.

--Andrea Mitchell on Maddow says she's 100% sure this is nothing more than affair and "code of honor"--no charges, no leaks or coverup. Richard Engel says Paula Broadwell probed for maybe trying to get access to his email account, probably failing, no secrets divulged, perhaps. Adds that Petraeus not popular at CIA--hints agency may have asked FBI to pry into account (FBI would not do on its own).

--NYT main story does not ID woman involved but has other key details. FBI did not notify heads of congressional panels last week, and Sen. Feinstein promises a probe. Wash Post also does not ID woman and points out that Feinstein did not want Petraeus to resign.

--WSJ, however, reports ID of woman, sort of: "A Federal Bureau of Investigation inquiry into use of Mr. Petraeus's
Gmail account led agents to believe the woman or someone close to her
had sought access to his email, the people said. Multiple officials familiar with the investigation identified the woman as the author of a biography on Mr. Petraeus." Later they name Paula Broadwell, then add: "Efforts to reach Ms. Broadwell were unsuccessful. A spokeswoman for her publisher, Penguin, did not immediately comment."

--CBS also names Broadwell. And there's this: "CBS News' John Miller reported that what is more likely is
that that the communications of someone else--possibly in a foreign
country that are now touching the C.I.A. director's communications--would rise to their attention. What happens here is they're looking at
these messages that seem to be cryptic in nature and raises the
question, 'Who is this person?' 'What are these communications about?' 'Why are they cryptic?"

"As for whether any national
secrets were revealed from this incident, Miller said according to his
sources that there were no classified information, no security
violations and certainly nothing that would constitute a violation of
law or anything criminal."

-- While press reports inevitably refer to the Petraeus bio as written by Paula Broadwell it was written "with" Wash Post reporter Vernon Loeb. Now reporter are trying to get to her via him.

--Latest video of Paula Broadwell speaking, at Univ of Denver, uploaded just last week. BTW, small world department: My daughter informs me that they are ph.d. candidates in same department in London....

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1 comment:

Anonymous
said...

Greg, I can't help thinking the letter in NYT was written by some gvmt agency. I'm not conspiracy nutter, it just uses terms like "project whose progress is seen worldwide as a demonstration of American leadership." Does that sound like a man who is worried about his wife cheating. It is written in way that it was meant to be found out later.

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About Me

G.M. is the author of more than a dozen books (click on covers above and below), the longtime editor of Editor & Publisher and until recently a daily writer for The Nation. Email: epic1934@aol.com. Twitter: @GregMitch